that, you know, we've heard from republicans, we want to shrink the government, we want to shrink the deficit but not the why. >> i definitely think we are about solving the big problems, macro fiscal problems. the president hasn't joined us. but the reason we're doing that is we want to help people. we don't want to see interest rates skyrocket. what's that going to do to people who are already struggling to pay their mortgage? we don't want to see taxes go up anymore. what's that going to do to somebody who already has now just experienced a tax hike. we want to make life work again, and the path to do that does include trying to get a handle on the fiscal situation here in washington, but it also means putting in place policies that help people with their health care costs, their education needs, college tuition and the rest. >> you want to make people's lives better. some might ask how you can do that and still slash the federal budget the way you want to slash in order to meet your other goal, which is to reduce the deficit. >> well, again, these are, you know, things that we're trying t